ZenGRC

GRC Software for Healthcare Organizations

The healthcare industry faces significant cybersecurity and regulatory challenges due to the sensitive nature of protected health information (PHI) and increasing cyberattacks, especially on small- and mid-sized hospitals, necessitating comprehensive governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) software solutions that integrate HIPAA requirements, state breach laws, and new federal cybersecurity performance goals to effectively manage risk and ensure compliance.

The Regulatory Burden

The healthcare industry is considered critical infrastructure by the U.S. government due to the highly personal and private nature of health information. Healthcare companies are frequent targets of cyberattacks, with the average cost of breaches in this sector topping all other industries for over twelve years. While large healthcare companies may seem like prime targets, small- and mid-sized hospitals are actually at the highest risk of cyberattacks.

The adoption of digital technologies, such as electronic health records stored in the cloud, has improved the quality of care and increased flexibility for healthcare providers. Telemedicine and online billing have also become more prevalent. However, these advancements introduce new security concerns and compliance obligations, including privacy expectations.

To address these challenges, healthcare organizations need a unified risk, cybersecurity, and compliance solution to implement a comprehensive compliance and risk management program.

A Framework for Information Security Success

The federal HIPAA law requires any business dealing with "private health information" (PHI) to protect it. PHI includes any information about a person’s health status, care received, and payment for health services, including patient accounts, user IDs, passwords, and possibly location data.

In addition to HIPAA, organizations handling PHI must comply with state-level breach disclosure laws if patient records are exposed. Achieving HIPAA compliance is complex, with over 100 pages of detailed requirements and documentation obligations.

New cybersecurity performance goals (CPGs) have been established in response to the 2021 National Security Memorandum on Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Control Systems. These goals help establish fundamental cybersecurity practices, especially for small- and medium-sized organizations.

Manage Compliance and Risk with Confidence and Ease

Healthcare data is among the most sensitive and highly regulated. Solutions like ZenGRC help healthcare providers protect PHI, comply with regulations such as HIPAA, and meet emerging cybersecurity goals.

ZenGRC offers a unified, real-time view of risk and compliance, focusing on protecting and securing vital aspects of healthcare organizations. With built-in compliance and security frameworks maintained by experts, and the ability to reuse controls and evidence across frameworks like HIPAA and NIST CSF, organizations can reduce complexity and eliminate risk blind spots.

Features include suggested risk and threat scores, real-time connections between automated control assessments and risk scoring, and significant efficiency gains to stay ahead of threats, reduce risk, and strengthen compliance.

Compliance Objectives

Organizations handling medical data must ensure compliance with privacy and security rules from the moment PHI is created. HIPAA specifies compliance objectives but not the methods to achieve them.

ZenGRC provides a library of over 25 regulatory, statutory, and contractual frameworks and standards, curated and maintained by experts. This enables organizations to adopt best practices and standardize risk and compliance efforts.

The library is aligned with the Secure Control Framework (SCF) and NIST, offering cross-mappings of controls from SCF, NIST CSF, and CIS to various global frameworks. Continuous, automated control testing helps eliminate audit fatigue and manual work, ensuring ongoing compliance.

With ZenGRC, organizations can:

  • Assess vulnerabilities to PHI within networks, applications, and information systems
  • Identify non-compliant data privacy behaviors, such as unencrypted data transfers to the cloud
  • Remediate weaknesses through security patches or changes to data collection practices
  • Map remediation progress to controls across HIPAA, NIST, PCI, and others
  • Report risk assessments and remediations to relevant parties
  • Integrate updated regulations into compliance programs as they arise

Achieve HIPAA Compliance and Protect Patient Data

FAQs for Healthcare Industry

How does GRC software help me protect sensitive data?

To protect IT systems and data from unauthorized access or theft, organizations must first identify gaps in security protocols and unique risks. Once risks are assessed, insights can inform risk reduction strategies and data privacy improvements. Compliance and cybersecurity programs must be maintained, monitored, and reviewed routinely to ensure controls remain effective.

A governance, risk, and compliance management solution like ZenGRC helps organizations identify, meet, and maintain their risk posture, including threat and vulnerability status. ZenGRC ensures organizations always know their current status and what actions are needed to improve risk, compliance, and security posture.

Who is required to be HIPAA compliant?

All covered entities and their business associates must demonstrate HIPAA compliance. Covered entities include healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses. Business associates are entities or individuals that disclose PHI or provide services to a covered entity. These organizations must adhere to national standards and implement appropriate access controls to ensure data security and privacy.

What are the four factors of a HIPAA breach risk assessment?

To ensure HIPAA compliance, breach risk assessments must consider four factors:

  1. 1.What kind of PHI was involved and what is the extent of its use?
  2. 2.Who was the unauthorized organization or person?
  3. 3.Did the organization or person procure or see the PHI?
  4. 4.How has the risk been mitigated?

What are the most common violations that trigger HIPAA investigations?

According to HHS.GOV, the most common violations leading to HIPAA investigations are:

  • Impermissible use and sharing of unsecured PHI
  • Lack of cybersecurity and encryption to protect information
  • Lack of or denying patients access to PHI
  • Lack of security systems to protect electronically protected health information
  • Disclosure of too much PHI (such as in substance abuse treatment cases)